Owner Suzanne Droppert said
the response from Bremerton shoppers during the holiday season
was encouraging.

“We received a really warm welcome
for everyone who stopped in,” Droppert said in an email
Monday.

Liberty Bay Books will remain at 409 Pacific Ave. at
least through January, while looking for a permanent home
downtown.

Droppert said the landlord is looking for a
tenant to lease the Liberty Bay Books space and an
adjacent suite together, which is more room than the
bookstore needs. When a new tenant is found, Liberty Bay
Books will move to another location.

The Bremerton Liberty Bay Books store will begin hosting
events and clubs early in the New Year.

The decline in sales wasn’t limited to Kitsap. Washington
recorded its first statewide drop in retail marijuana
revenue back in July, following a restructuring of the excise
tax, and sales slipped again in November:

A one-month falloff in sales is far from
a trend, but the decline does come at an interesting
time for the industry.

The Liquor and Cannabis Board
announced plans last week to lift the cap on retail licenses,
as the state prepares to roll the marginally-regulated medical
marijuana system into the tightly-controlled recreational marijuana
system. The number of stores allowed in Kitsap would increase from
10 to 20.

Some legal marijuana sellers believe the market is
already becoming saturated in Bremerton and Port Orchard,
pointing to a plateau in per-store sales this fall.

Silverdale will be the
seventh location for the fast-casual chain, which
launched in Mill Creek in 2007 (the
Everett Herald has a nice company history here).
Some Kitsap diners may already be familiar with the
Blazing Onion in Gig Harbor.

Co-founder David Jones said Blazing Onion had been looking for a
Central Kitsap location and jumped on the chance to move
into The Trails.

“We’d been watching Silverdale for a
while,” he said.

Jones said the Silverdale restaurant stands out
from its predecessors in a couple of ways.

The Trails restaurant is the first franchised Blazing Onion
location — it’s owned by a small group of partners. Jones said the
company will probably franchise more stores if the model
proves successful in Silverdale.

The Trails Blazing Onion will also be the first to
incorporate a whiskey lounge. The bar touts more than 200
varieties of whiskey, bourbon and Scotch.

“I was trying to change things up a little bit,”
Jones said.

Blazing Onion emphasizes Northwest ingredients
and makes its food from scratch. Jones said the chain uses 100
percent natural ground chuck in its burgers. Salads,
soups and sandwiches round out the menu.

Technology has also become a hallmark for the chain.
Jones said Blazing Onion is currently testing an iPad ordering
system, which could be rolled out in Silverdale in early 2016.

Port of Bremerton Commissioner Roger Zabinski was on
business in Japan last week and missed the final commission
meeting of the year.

The District 1 commissioner, who chose not to run for reelection
this year, still took a moment to reflect on his time with the port
in a statement read by CEO Jim Rothlin:

“I want to thank all the port staff,
commissioners and the public for the opportunity that I’ve had to
serve the public as a port commissioner these past six years. I’ve
really enjoyed this time and found the experience very
rewarding…

“I think the port is doing a good job serving the
public, maintaining public amenities and trying to further develop
the industrial park and the airport. I think the port commission
and staff are focused and committed to the port’s mission of
economic development and I encourage you all to keep at
it…”

Kitsap entered the holiday hiring season with more jobs
than in previous years.

About 88,700 people were working for Kitsap companies in
October, according to preliminary numbers from the state
Employment Security Office. That was about 1,700 more than were
employed in October 2014.

Numbers were up in the private sector, but the public sector
posted a bigger gain, with an increase of about 1,200 jobs.